Asphalt-surfaced roadways are built to facilitate vehicular travel. Depending upon usage density, base conditions, temperature variation, moisture levels, and/or physical age, the surfaces of the roadways eventually become misshapen and unable to support wheel loads. In order to rehabilitate the roadways for continued vehicular use, spent asphalt is removed in preparation for resurfacing.
Cold planers, sometimes also called road mills or scarifiers, are used to break up and remove layers of an asphalt roadway. A cold planer typically includes a frame propelled by tracked or wheeled drive units. The frame supports an engine, an operator station, a milling drum, and conveyors. The milling drum, fitted with cutting tools, is rotated through a suitable interface with the engine to break up the surface of the roadway. The broken-up roadway material is deposited by the milling drum onto a first conveyor that transfers the broken-up roadway material from a discharge end of the first conveyor to a charge end of a second conveyor. The second conveyor may deposit the broken-up roadway material the from a discharge end of the second conveyor toward a direction of travel (e.g., that is parallel to the first conveyor and/or second conveyor) of the cold planer. The second conveyor may be configured to pivot about the charge end of the second conveyor to enable the second conveyor to deposit the broken-up roadway material from the cold planer at an angle that is not parallel to the first conveyor. During operation, however, when the broken-up roadway material is transferred from the first conveyor to the second conveyor, some of the broken-up roadway material may not reach the second conveyor due to mis-alignment of the charge end of the second conveyor and the discharge end of the first conveyor and/or due to the amount of material that is grouped together and/or transferred at one moment. As such, broken-up roadway material that does not reach the second conveyor may be deposited within the cold planer, on the remaining roadway, or the like.
One attempt to transfer milled material is described in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2017/0009409 to Verhaelen et al. and was published on Jan. 12, 2017 (“the Verhaelen reference”). In particular, the Verhaelen reference describes a transfer housing arranged to receive milled-off material from a first conveyor that includes a first transfer opening essentially coaxial to a vertical pivoting axis and open downwardly. The Verhaelen reference further describes a reception housing arranged at a second conveyor and includes an upwardly open reception opening and a lid covering at least a major part of the reception opening. In the Verhaelen reference, the lid includes a passage opening configured to allow communication of the transfer opening with the reception opening.
While the transfer element of the Verhaelen reference may enable transfer material to be deposited from the second conveying device that is transverse to the direction of travel of the milling machine and/or the first conveying device, the transfer element may not resolve issues with range of movement of the second conveying device relative to the first conveying device and/or varying amounts of material being transferred from the first conveying device to the second conveying device.
The flexible hopper of the present disclosure solves one or more of the problems set forth above and/or other problems in the art.